In the related art, a plurality of substrate accommodation containers are mounted on a load port of a substrate processing apparatus; the cover of, for example, a first substrate accommodation container, among the plurality of mounted substrate accommodation containers, is opened to check for the presence or absence or the positions of wafers accommodated therein; wafer mapping is performed to count the number of sheets of wafers; and the wafers (substrates) within the first substrate accommodation container are sequentially conveyed to a processing chamber individually and processed. After wafer mapping is performed for the first substrate accommodation container, the cover of a second substrate accommodation container is opened and wafer mapping is performed for the second substrate accommodation container. After wafer mapping for the second substrate accommodation container is terminated, the second substrate accommodation container is kept in a standby state with the cover thereof opened, and then, after processing of all of the substrates within the first substrate accommodation container is terminated, processing of the substrates within the second substrate accommodation container begins. In the related art, there is also known a substrate processing apparatus for sequentially carrying out substrates from a plurality of substrate accommodation containers mounted on a load port, conveying the substrate accommodation containers into a processing chamber, and processing the same in the processing chamber.
In the substrate processing apparatus of the related art, a cover of the plurality of substrate accommodation containers, for example, the cover of a first substrate accommodation container, is opened; wafer mapping is performed; and substrates within the first substrate accommodation container start to be processed, while, at the same time, the cover of a second substrate accommodation container is opened and wafer mapping is performed. However, in this case, even after wafer mapping for the second substrate accommodation container is terminated, the cover of the second substrate accommodation container kept in a standby state is maintained in an opened state. Thus, the wafers within the second substrate accommodation container in the standby state are exposed to the air within the substrate processing apparatus, providing the possibility in which particles may be attached to the surface of the wafers.